The dissertation examines Ekistics, a field defined by the architect and planner Constantine Doxiadis as the "science of human settlements" that championed the radical expansion of architecture's scope, called for its ...

Small farmers across New Mexico irrigate with acequias, a system of cooperative, gravity-fed ditches introduced in Spanish colonial times that remains well adapted to managing scarce water in a dry climate. While the acequia ...

One of the most important steps in designing a machine is the consideration of the effect of interfaces between components. A badly designed interface can vary from costly difficulties such as additional control or calibration ...

The ground state for a one dimensional spin 1/2 Heisenberg chain coupled to phonons is a dimerized singlet state known as a "spin-Peierls" state. Currently, the spin-Peierls state is realized in only a handful of known ...

In this thesis I address the topic of anisotropy - the directional dependence of physical properties of rocks - from two complementary angles: I use seismic anisotropy to detect deformation in the mantle, and I demonstrate ...

Distributed on-line transaction processing (OLTP) database management systems (DBMSs) are a critical part of the operation of large enterprises. These systems often serve time-varying workloads due to daily, weekly or ...

The behavior of mechanical adhesive interfaces when subjected to a variety of separation and slide loading modes, strain rates, and thermal conditions are of interest in many technical areas. An elastic-plastic constitutive ...

The effective mechanical properties of multiphase materials not only depend on the volume fraction and chemical composition of their constituents but also on details of their local texture. Yet, most homogenization methods ...

Calcium leaching induced aging in concrete creates a new material with degraded macroscopic mechanical properties. Although the degradation of strength has been elaborately studied in the last decade, the degradation of ...

The utilization of soft materials in the design of optical systems provides opportunities for imparting these optical systems with completely unprecedented properties. This will enhance performance of systems, such as ...